200-foot-tall crane was operated by Dutch company Mammoet, based in Rosharon

By Harvey Rice |
August 14, 2014
| Updated: August 14, 2014 9:43pm

Crews get ready to place the space shuttle replica on top of the real transport plane early Thursday morning, Aug. 14, 2014, outside Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Photo By Cody Duty

Crews get ready to place the space shuttle replica on top of the real
transport plane early Thursday morning, Aug. 14, 2014, outside Johnson
Space Center in Houston.

Photo By Cody Duty

Crews get ready to place the space shuttle replica on top of the real
transport plane early Thursday morning, Aug. 14, 2014, outside Johnson
Space Center in Houston.

Photo By Cody Duty

Crews get ready to place the space shuttle replica on top of the real
transport plane early Thursday morning, Aug. 14, 2014, outside Johnson
Space Center in Houston.

Photo By Cody Duty

Crews get ready to place the space shuttle replica on top of the real
transport plane early Thursday morning, Aug. 14, 2014, outside Johnson
Space Center in Houston.

Photo By Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle

Crews get ready to place the space shuttle replica on top of the real transport plane early Thursday morning, Aug. 14, 2014, outside Johnson Space Center in Houston. See more photos of the shuttle carrier as it was being reassembled for display at the Johnson Space Center.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

Workers from Boeing dismantle the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft at Ellington Field on Friday, March 21, 2014, in Houston. The specially modified 747 that was used for three decades to ferry the space shuttle across the country will be moved to Space Center Houston where it will anchor a new $12 million exhibit with the center's full-scale mockup of the space shuttle atop it. The move is planned for April, with the exhibit scheduled to open in 2015.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

Flight controls on the flight deck of the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft bear the tail number N905NA of the modified 747.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

Workers from Boeing talk between sections of the internal fuel tanks the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft being dismantled at Ellington Field.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

Landing gear from the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft on a taxiway at Ellington Field where the aircraft is being dismantled.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

A piece of the tail section of the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft after being removed from the aircraft at Ellington Field.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

A sold sign left behind as a humorous nod to the transfer of the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft to Space Center Houston sits in a passenger area of the aircraft at Ellington Field.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

Workers from Boeing remove a wing as they dismantle the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft at Ellington Field.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

Fuselage ribs are seen on the interior of the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft being dismantled at Ellington Field.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

Stamps on the interior of the aircraft's fuel tanks mark the date of assembly in the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

Logos on the fuselage mark all of the flights of the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

The cockpit door way leads to the flight deck of the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft at Ellington Field.

NASA 905 will be transported down Highway 3 and then Nasa Road 1 to Space Center Houston. There, next year, the plane will open as an exhibit with the shuttle atop it. Moving something as large as a 747 down the road is no easy task, and months of preparation have gone into it.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

In a remote corner of Ellington Field, workers from Boeing dismantle the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft on Sunday, March 23, 2014.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

Workers from Boeing remove a wing as they dismantle the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft at Ellington Field.

Exposed wiring in the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft being dismantled at Ellington Field.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

A remove before flight tag on doorway of the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft being dismantled at Ellington Field.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

In a remote corner of Ellington Field, workers from Boeing dismantle the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft on Friday, March 21, 2014.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

A Space Center Houston flag flies over the cockpit the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft being dismantled at Ellington Field.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

The space shuttle Endeavour, carried atop NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, passes over the downtown Houston skyline during a flyover on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012. Endeavour stopped in Houston on its way from the Kennedy Space Center to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, where it will be placed on permanent display.

A full-size replica of the space shuttle is surrounded by boats as it passes the Kemah Boardwalk on Friday, June 1, 2012, in Kemah. The mock-up shuttle Explorer arrived by barge from the Kennedy Space Center to a new home at Space Center Houston. After a contest, it was renamed "Independence" in 2013.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

Crowds gather around the space shuttle Endeavour, carried atop NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, after landing at Ellington Field on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012, in Houston. Endeavour stopped in Houston on its way from the Kennedy Space Center to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, where it will be placed on permanent display.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

The space shuttle Endeavour, carried atop NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, passes over neighborhoods near Hobby Airport during a flyover on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2012, in Houston. Endeavour stopped in Houston on its way from the Kennedy Space Center to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, where it will be placed on permanent display.

Photo By Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle

The space shuttle Endeavour, carried atop NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, passes over downtown Houston during a departure flyover on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. Endeavour stopped in Houston on its way from the Kennedy Space Center to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, where it will be placed on permanent display.

The new $12 million exhibit of the center's full-scale mockup will sit atop the specially modified 747 that was used for three decades. "It's a celebration of our past accomplisments," said John Elbon, Boeing Space Exploration vice president ... It's an opportunity to look forward ... and inspire the next generation of kids."

As hundreds of eager onlookers watched, a crane on Thursday lifted the space shuttle replica Independence nearly three stories high to its resting place atop a Boeing 747 at Space Center Houston, where visitors will eventually be able to tour the attraction.

The delicate lift to the crown of the 63-foot 747 took about 40 minutes. The 122-foot Independence was attached to a 200-foot tall crane operated by Mammoet, a Dutch company whose U.S. offices are based in Rosharon, Brazoria County.

"What is so spectacular here is that we are able to contribute to a piece of history," said Guus Stigter, Mammoet's director of global key accounts.

The lift was challenging because of the awkward weight distribution of the replica and the safety concerns for the hundreds of spectators, Stigter said.

The crane lifted the replica to a height of 150 feet before lowering it onto the back of the shuttle plane, NASA 905, sitting on a 15-inch concrete foundation.

The Clear Lake Suzuki Strings with musicians from Pasadena's Rayburn High School played variations on "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," interspersed with recorded music, during the lift.

The wind caught the wings and made it sway as it was being lowered, a tense moment for Space Center Houston CEO Richard E. Allen Jr. "The wind was the biggest concern we had and for whatever reason we got a gust," Allen said. But Mammoet workers had the Independence tethered to long lines they used to stabilize it and the docking went on without a hitch. Workers began welding the replica in place as soon as the match was complete.

"It's really, really amazing," said Tam Tran, 46, who brought sons Phillip, 12, and Austin, 10, to watch the marriage of aircraft and spacecraft. "I think it's cool because they had the space shuttle and they added the plane to make it a bigger landmark," Phillip said.

Visitors will eventually be able to enter the replica cockpit, the mid-level shuttle compartment and the 747 through a tower equipped with a staircase and two elevators, Allen said. Space Center Houston is $2.2 million short of the $12 million it needs to complete the exhibit.

"It's a celebration of our past accomplishments," said John Elbon, Boeing Space Exploration vice president. "Even more important, it's an opportunity to look forward ... and inspire the next generation of kids."

The lift to the top of the 747 is the final step in a long journey to Houston that began more than two years ago at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The replica was shipped by barge across the Gulf of Mexico in May 2012 and unloaded at the Johnson Space Center barge dock on Clear Lake. It took a full day to lift the replica from the barge and weld it onto a transporter, then three hours to move it a mile to Space Center Houston.

The 747, used to transport space shuttles from landing sites in California and New Mexico back to the launch site in Florida, was moved to Space Center Houston in April from Ellington Field, an 8-mile journey that required breaking the aircraft into nine parts and reassembling them at the Space Center.

The Independence then had to make another 400-yard journey on a special transporter to the spot where the final lift was made Thursday.